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Washington Post Features Book Review By Politics Prof. David Alvarez

The Washington Post published a review written by Saint Mary's Politics Professor David Alvarez on the new book The Pope's Last Crusade: How an American Jesuit Helped Pope Pius XI's Campaign to Stop Hitler. The book by the award-winning journalist Peter Eisner tells the story of Pope Pius XI (Achille Ratti) who was one of the most prominent critics of Hitler in the 1930s. Alvarez says Eisner's book helps to rescue Pius XI from obscurity. "His pontificate (1922-1939) has been overshadowed by that of his controversial successor, Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli), whose silence in the face of Nazi genocidal policies during World War II has generated a veritable library of popular and academic studies, including two biographies in the past few months alone. It is an irony of history that the pope who was vocal in attacking Nazism and fascism is less well-known than the pope who was not."

The Post cites Alvarez's academic status at the College and his authority on papal history, noting his authorship of The Pope's Soldiers: A Military History of the Vatican.